Endless Roads
by Valiance
Summary: You can run away, you can cower and hide. Or you can walk, back straight and head held high, into the jaws of a monster.


Countryside went on and on in all directions. Green hills eventually melted into the blackness. No matter how much walking Zack did, it didn't change. Just a little farmhouse would be nice, little homely windows spilling out squares of light into the yard. He wouldn't say no to monster hunting now, either. Anything to stop him feeling so desperately alone.

And so desperately surrounded.

At the moment, though, there was nothing but him, the moon, stars, and... Cloud.

The kid was still dragging his feet beside him, most of his weight leaned on Zack – but he wasn't heavy. His empty eyes, Mako glow more pronounced in the dark, were fixed on the floor.

Zack sighed, shifted his hold on Cloud, and rummaged in his pocket for his phone. He flipped it open, the light of the screen making him wince until his eyes adjusted. A map of the area appeared.

They still had a long, long walk ahead of them.

"Hey, buddy, I'm not lost. This thing's pretty handy, right?" Zack looked sidelong at Cloud. Still staring at the floor.

He looked back at his phone, grinning and shaking his head. "I'm surprised it still works. Still getting mail from HQ... Guess they hand out indestructible phones for indestructible warriors."

Silence, except stones crunching under their boots. Noticing this, Zack urged his companion off the path. He'd been taking frequent detours to avoid pursuers. Staying off the path was just as dangerous as being on it, but right now...

He crested a small hillock, pausing to look around the rolling plains.

"No one around. Kinda thing some people only dream of..." Long grass swayed in a delicate breeze, and the sky was clear and full of stars. He started walking again. "Too bad that's not true. Someone'll be following us right now. Once Shinra sinks its claws into you, it ain't letting go without a fight."

But Cloud wouldn't budge. Zack pulled at him, but he didn't respond like he usually did, swaying on the spot like the tiniest breeze would carry him away.

"--Hey, hey, c'mon. Keep moving. I've given them a fight so far, I'm not gonna stop now." He turned, and kneeled to bring himself to Cloud's eye-level. "I won't ditch you, promise."

Whether he could hear or not, Zack didn't know, but Cloud was coaxed into moving again, one dragging footstep after another. Albeit more clumsily - he slipped and jerked as they moved back down the hill. The Mako addiction was clearly straining his body. Zack wanted to give him a break, but they couldn't stop, not wide out in the open like this.

Zack had studied Mako addiction. It was usually products of experiments gone wrong, SOLDIERs who weren't quite strong enough to make it through the operation of Mako infusion. He'd also learned to identify the symptoms, and Cloud ticked all the boxes. Still, sometimes when Zack talked to him, he thought he saw a flicker of something; the old bright spark he usually had in his eye. Recognition, maybe. So he talked. The spark reminded him things weren't as hopeless as they might seem. Things were _never_ hopeless, as long as he tried.

He wanted to call people. He wanted to tell them he was okay, he'd make it, but it wasn't possible. They'd be tracking his calls, and it'd give his location away and send Shinra forces like a magnet. Yet he couldn't forget that message waiting for him in his inbox: _SOLDIER 1__st class Zack Fair, killed in action._ Above that was a similar message for Sephiroth. Just like when Angeal had gone. So routine, so throwaway and unimportant. No words to their memories. No doubt they'd come up with some elaborate cover story; even without Director Lazard's assistance in glossing things over, Shinra was Shinra. Few but they would know Nibelheim was ever levelled and rebuilt, that Banora existed, that Sephiroth had gone mad or that Zack Fair had been an experiment for four years. A nameless, faceless infantryman like Cloud was even less important. Zack didn't even know the fate of the other infantryman that had been with them.

It made him sick to his stomach, left an acrid taste in his mouth.

That girl, Tifa. She was right for hating them. No one would believe her if she told them what she'd witnessed... if she was still alive. Shinra employees knew that 'killed in action' messages were rarely accurate, yet they swallowed it as fact.

Zack stopped in his tracks. Cloud gave a lurch, but he moved to support him by what had become an automatic action. He frowned, distracted.

He was going back to all of that. Liars and monsters.

"...Cloud. I've been thinking. Instead of heading to Midgar, we could turn tail. Run away." He sunk to the ground, propping Cloud's head on his shoulder. Kid didn't even blink, but Zack liked to think he was relieved at getting a sit-down. "We could change our names, get disguises, go into hiding. Eventually they'd give up and start thinking we were dead." The ones who didn't already think so, anyway. "Our Mako eyes might gives us away, but it'd be safer than Midgar, right under their noses."

He scratched his head and paused to gather his thoughts. Idly, he hoped the hillock was concealing them from view.

"...I don't know about you, but that's not an option. I could never live with myself."

He thought of the man with an angel's wing looking down on him, of the beautiful flower girl sitting down to write her last letter. Of the silver-haired hero wreathed in flames and madness, of the hard-faced slum dwellers who won't ever see a sky like this. And he just hoped that, even if Cloud wasn't listening before, that right now he was paying attention through the haze in his mind.

"Why? Dreams and honour. Running away would mean running from that. I was taught better."

It seemed almost silly, now. He was dead to SOLDIER, to the rest of the world. His records would be filed away forever. He'd fade from memory. He wanted to be a hero, but he couldn't save anyone.

He glanced at his vapid companion. Motionless, doll-like. Yet, to counter it, his chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, like he was just sleeping.

Cloud still had that spark. Cloud wasn't going to roll over and die, he didn't want to fade. If Zack could save anyone, he could save him. Even if he was doomed to fade, being a hero was not about personal glory.

"Yeah. I'm not running. I was taught that if I want wings, I have to earn them."

He smiled, realising he'd become far too sombre. Cloud would chide him for acting so uncharacteristic. "Got a girl I wanna see in Midgar, too. She's waiting for me. You should meet her! I know she'd like ya--"

A bang echoed in the distance. He reached for his sword and pulled his friend protectively to him. There was a second shot, closer, and his eyes swept their surroundings.

"Gunshots," he muttered. "So they're finally catching up with us..."

He stood, setting Cloud down in the grass. "We're not running. Wait here, I'll be back in no time." Briefly, Zack smiled over his shoulder at him, then disappeared into the dark.


End file.
